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Ray Bonneville

With a style that sometimes draws comparisons to JJ Cale and Daniel Lanois, this blues-influenced, New Orleans-inspired “song and groove man,” as he’s been so aptly described, luckily found his rightful calling as a blues Musician.

Honing his songwriting craft for the last 35 years, "Bonneville's raw, tell-it-like-it-is storytelling style has won him critical acclaim" (Blum, NPR). Bonneville has been nominated for three Juno awards, winning the 2000 Best Blues Album for his third album Gust of Wind (1999). His fourth release Rough Luck was also nominated, as was his 2004 Red House debut Roll It Down, which made his name in the US, garnering rave reviews from DownBeat and No Depression. Since then, his star has been on the rise, with his award-winning release Goin' By Feel, his folk-charting cover of Bob Dylan's song "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" (featured on A Nod to Bob 2: An Artists Tribute to Bob Dylan on His 70th Birthday) and receiving the 2009 Folk Alliance InternationalSong of the Year for I Am the Big Easy, featuring post-Katrina New Orleans. Bonneville has "shared the stage with blues heavyweights B.B. King, Muddy Waters, J.J. Cale, and Robert Cray, and has performed on the stages of South by Southwest and Folk Alliance" (Blum, NPR).

On his fourth Red House Records album, Easy Gone, Bonneville delivers 10 reasons why patience pays off. In each, his guitarwork shimmers like stars emerging at dusk. His voice carries the rich, natural timbre of time, though underneath that pearl-like smoothness, one hears its gritty core. His harmonica rhythms add even more texture to his sound.

Produced by Bonneville and Justin Douglas, Easy Gone wears the faded denim of a man who knew when he “said I do to a highway,” as he sings in “Who Do Call the Shots,” that it wasn’t going to be an easy marriage. But he also knew divorce was not an option, and affirms his vows in soulful lyrics that balance thoughtful observation, impassioned emotion and the restless soul of a wanderer.